Guest Author: Shelley Munro

Today, Literary Escapism is excited to welcome Shelley Munro to the floor! Shelley is the author of the Middlemarch Mates series and the first novel, Scarlet Woman, is quite a read.

Emily Scarlet’s husband left her for his secretary and died in a car accident—all on the same day. Now, six months later, Emily has emerged from her chrysalis of painful memories. And to prove she has what it takes to attract a man, she’s determined to experience one perfect night of passion.

An ad in the newspaper catches her eye. The Middlemarch ball presents the ideal opportunity to find a man. Emily catches the “love train” to Middlemarch and heads for one night of uncomplicated sex to wipe away her husband’s vicious taunts.

Feline shape-shifter Saber Mitchell has a problem with his four boisterous younger brothers. They’re out of control. It’s too late for him, but he hopes to get his brothers mated and settled, and the ball is the perfect place to introduce them to marriageable women.

Unbridled sex is the last thing Saber’s expecting, but one glimpse at Emily Scarlet changes his mind. Sex with her is a necessity. They dance. They make love. One thing is clear—a single night isn’t enough. Saber must have her for his mate, but Emily isn’t so easy to convince…or trust.

Make sure you stick around to the end. We’ll be giving away a copy of one of the Middlemarch Mates novels – winner’s choice – to one lucky winner.
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Reasons to Like Paranormal Romances

Hi! My name is Shelley Munro. Thanks for having me to visit today. While I was pondering a topic for this visit on my Scarlet Woman tour, I thought of lots of possible post topics, but I kept coming back to the same thing—my love of the paranormal genre. I decided to do a list of the things I like about reading and writing paranormal romances.

1. The alpha heroes. In most cases, the heroes are strong alpha males who love their women and try to keep them safe to the best of their abilities.

2. The heroines are also strong. They’re strong enough to keep their men in line and make their lovers earn both love and loyalty.

3. There’s a real variety of settings. The stories can be set in a large city or a small country town, under the sea or in the underworld. The possibilities are endless.

4. Authors are very clever in their use of old myths and legends, giving them interesting twists and making them into fresh new stories.

5. The stories can be lighthearted and humorous or dark and gritty. There’s something for all my moods.

6. The world building is amazing.

7. When it comes to the type of paranormal creatures, there’s a huge variety: vampires, werewolves, feline shifters, witches, fairies, dragons, demons… And the list goes on!

8. The paranormal genre seems to breed series. I really enjoy catching up with characters I’ve read about in previous books.

9. Urban fantasy is a related genre with the stories often told in first person. These are some of my favorites.

10. Writing paranormal stories is exciting and interesting – the only limit is my imagination.

11. I get to research lots of fun stuff.

12. When I say I’m away with the fairies, it’s a reasonable excuse!

Why do you enjoy paranormal romances?

Shelley Munro lives in New Zealand and loves to write about feline shapeshifters. To learn more about Scarlet Woman and the other stories in Shelley’s Middlemarch Mates series, read excerpts, see family trees and other background information visit her website.

Excerpt from Scarlet Woman:

The line moved forward and Emily tugged two tickets from the depths of her clutch bag before draping the long strap over her shoulder.

“It’s all about sex,” Maggie snapped. “They have a shortage of women in Middlemarch. I’ve read the papers. This isn’t a dance. It’s a meat market.”

“Yeah, great, isn’t it?” Emily chuckled, attracting the attention of the same group of men she’d just ogled. She winked at them before turning back to Maggie. “You didn’t have to come with me. I told you I was happy to come on my own. I promised to turn into a pumpkin at midnight, catch the train back to Dunedin and stumble into a taxi at the other end, tired and all danced out like a good Cinderella. But you insisted on coming. The least you can do is enjoy yourself. Dance. Let your hair down. Come on, you know you love to dance.”

“I don’t know you in this mood. You’ve changed.”

Laughing, Emily gave Maggie a quick, reassuring hug. “I’m just the same. And tonight we’ll dance the night away with some cute country boys before heading back to the big, bad city. Okay?” She handed over their tickets with a bright smile toward the elderly woman sitting behind the wooden desk at the entrance to the marquee. Maggie was right. She had changed. She wasn’t the same doormat Michael had walked all over before discarding. No longer the little homemaker. The drudge.

This Scarlet woman planned on having a little fun.

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Thank you Shelley for taking the time to share with us why you enjoy paranormal romances.

Contest Time! Shelley has graciously offered to give away a Middlemarch Mates novel – winner’s choice – to one lucky winner. All you have to do is answer one of this question: Why do you enjoy paranormal romances?

As always, there’s more ways of getting your name in the hat:

  • +1 for each place you post about today’s contest on your blog, social network, or anywhere you can. Digg it, stumble it, twit it, share it with the world. Wherever you share it, make sure you add a link to it along with your answer.
  • +1 to any review you comment on, however, comments must be meaningful. Just give me the title of the review and I’ll be able to figure it out from there.
  • +1 Join the Literary Escapism Facebook page and/or follow LE on Twitter
  • +1 subscribe to Literary Escapism – either via a reader or email (see the RSS button at the bottom of the sidebar)
  • +10 purchase for any of Shelley’s at Ellora’s Cave or any print novel through LE’s Amazon store sometime during this contest and send a copy of the receipt VIA email for your purchase to: myjaxon AT gmail DOT com. Each purchase is worth ten entries, but it has to be through the LE Amazon Link.

There is one thing I am adding to my contests now…the winner must post a review of the novel someplace.  Whether it is on their own blog, Amazon, GoodReads, LibraryThing or wherever, it doesn’t matter.  Just help get the word out.

The contest will stay open until February 9th, at which time I’ll determine the winner with help from the Research Randomizer and the List Randomizer.

Also, I have not been contacting winners, so you will need to check back to see if you’ve won.

About Jackie 3282 Articles
I am a 30-something SAHM with two adorable boys and a supportive husband who is very tolerant of my reading addiction. I love to read and easily go through about a dozen books a month – well I did before I had kids. Now, not so much. After my first son was born, I began to take my hobby of reviewing a little more serious and started Literary Escapism to help with my sanity. I love to discuss the fabulous novels I’ve read and meeting all the wonderful people in the book blogging community has been amazing.

19 Comments

  1. Wow, this book sounds great! I’ll definitely have to add it to my TBR list.

    I enjoy paranormal romance because of all the endless possibilities. Nothing is out of bounds, you’re only limited by your own imagination.

    +1 subscriber

  2. Wow, what a book. Can’t waito read it. I love paranormal romances because they take me away to non-reality. It’s my escapism to worlds of fancy and the unknown.

    +1 I’m a subscriber

  3. Hey Shelley! It’s great to see you here. Last week, I became a Facebook Fan of Literary Escapism.
    Congratulation on yet another fantastic sounding story. I agreed with most all your reason to like paranormal—except the 1st person bit. Don’t know why, I’m just not into that anymore. Your reason #11 I , unfortunately agreed with too much—it’s where I get lost!

    Great blurb and excerpt (love the way it ends).
    Julie

  4. This sounds like a great series – I’m looking forward to reading it :o)

    I love paranormals for all of the reasons Shelly mentioned. There is something about an alpha male but I love the fact that anything is possible in paranormals. I love getting lost in a different world.

    +1 for being a subscriber

  5. I love PR because they’re the middleman between ‘boring’ reality and total escapism (at least for me! *g*).

    Also, I have to say the premise of this book sounds awesome!

    (+1 follow LE on Twitter -c_morin, and
    +1 subscribe to Literary Escapism – either via a reader or email (see the RSS button at the bottom of the sidebar)

  6. I like paranormal because it is so different from my everyday life and is a chance to escape the usual. There is so much ‘scope for imagination’ in these books, almost unlimited really.

    I can’t wait to read this book, it sounds really good.

    +1 follower

  7. I enjoy paranormal because of the series’ aspect of it. Almost every paranormal I’ve read is part of a series. I also enjoy the “whole new world” aspect of the genre. So different than every day life.

  8. I am a follower.

    I enjoy paranormal books because of the chanes in scenery. Almost always new places that are fun to explore.

  9. Anything can happen in Paranormal Romances, there’s no way to know from the start how the story will go. And I like the HEA endings!

    subscriber via a reader service

  10. I’m a very ordinary person without much imagination…but when I read these novels I get to go to places I could not dream of.

    I’m a subscriber via RSS feed & google reader

  11. I love paranormal romance for all those reasons Ms. Munro listed! Plus, it’s a real escape from reality for a short while and I like that.

    +1 sidebar post here
    +1 Coldest Girl in Coldtown review coment
    +1 Facebook subscriber
    +1 twitter follower(BookAddictPatti)

  12. I enjoy paranormal romances for the edginess and imaginative of a paranormal and the sweetness of a romance.

    +1 I follow on Facebook and Twitter (as bl0226)
    +1 I am a subscriber

    Thanks,
    Tracey D

  13. Cant wait to read this book, sounds amazing.

    I love paranormal because there are so many aspects to it, so every story is different and has the ability to be incredibly fast paced or slow and mysterious. I also love how the characters can be different from that of the norm-human-they can be shapeshifters, suckers, etc etc.So when romance is put into paranormal-the characters-esp’ between the females and males, it adds extra spice to what is already an enticing genre.

    +1 Twittered it http://twitter.com/bianca_riot/statuses/8705151093
    +1 Following on both twitter (bianca_riot)and facebook (Bianca F)

    bianca.riot.08(at)hotmail(dot)com

  14. Why do you enjoy paranormal romances?

    Because it’s my favorite genres :) I love paranormal things, i like to dive into this paranormal world from Authors POV. And with the Add of Romance, Paranormal story will be more intriguing !

    +1 i tweet’d here http://twitter.com/becunique

    +1 your Fb friend and followed LE on Twitter

  15. I enjoy reading paranormal romance mainly for reasons 1, 2, 6, and 8 Ms. Munro listed. The paranormal element adds a very enjoyable element to my romance novel reading experience (in other words it adds to the overall pleasure of reading the book that I sometimes find lacking when reading other sub-genres of romance). Vampires, angels, and werewolves are among my favourite paranormal characters, at the moment.

    +1 Facebook account fan
    +1 email subscriber
    +1 promoted contest at my blog: http://bog-elsker.livejournal.com/77980.html

    Thanks for sharing!

  16. Hello Shelley,
    I love paranormal romances for so many reasons – disbelief can be suspened over a storyline; the characters can be “over-the-top”; things can happen in PNR books that don’t or can’t happen in real life; magical things can occur; shape-shifters & such are possible; you get taken out of the real world & swept up in another world; HEA’s are the norm.

    I’m a follower of Literary Escapism on Facebook.

    Thanks,
    Lea Ellen B. {night owl in IL}

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